Wrong metadata when ripping CDs to iTunes?

[JoshT]

I have been ripping my CDs to iTunes for about a month now, and today for the first time I noticed that the track descriptions were wrong on TWO CDs I inserted. The name of the CD, artist, composer and even artwork was all correct, but the tracks were totally random. One one, the first 15 were correct, but the remaining 27 were wrong. On the other they were all wrong.

 

Strange that this would happen twice in one day. I assume it's an iTunes importing issue, or could it be incorrect metadata on the discs themselves?

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Josh - iTunes uses the Grace Note database to look up all the information about disks inserted into your computer. It doesn't get any metadata from the disc itself, just what's called a table of contents TOC. The TOC identifies the disc for look up online through Grace Note.

 

Grace Note doesn't always get it right. My guess is there are several versions of the albums in question here. Grace Note took a guess and got it wrong.

 

What albums are you talking about specifically?

 

[Mister Wednesday]

JoshT,

 

As Chris states above iTunes uses the Gracenotes database as the supplier of the metadata for albums you are importing/ripping yourself.

 

The thing you have to understand about the Gracenotes database is that the album metadata is actually uploaded to the database by other public users rather than by the record companies. So, the accuracy of whatever metadata you get for a given album is totally dependent on whoever out there in the public uploaded that information into the Gracenotes system. Whatever spelling errors, misnaming of tracks, incorrect year data, incorrect assignment of the Compilation flag, etc., that you might see is caused by the original uploader.

 

The usefulness of that Gracenotes metadata to you in terms of the cataloguing functionality of iTunes depends on how well the original uploader understands the underlying cataloguing logic that the iTunes software uses for each data field. The best thing you can do is to clean up each set of album metadata using a set of data field naming conventions that are most useful to you.

 

A few good sources of information on the Web on understanding the iTunes underlying cataloguing logic are:

 

http://www.samsoft.org.uk/iTunes/grouping.asp

 

http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=9910895#9910895

 

http://www.macworld.com/article/144726/2009/12/itunes_compilations.html

 

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10652572

 

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10652572

 

http://www.macworld.com/article/155173/2010/10/itunes_sorting_tags.html

 

http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/the-complete-guide-to-album-tagging-art-and-playlists-in-itunes/

 

Hope this is useful to you.

 

Regards,

 

Mister Wednesday

 

 

 

[JoshT]

I'll check those links out. There is an awful lot to learn in this hobby!

 

The two CDs at issue are:

 

1. Artur Rubinstein, Nocturne (BMG); and

2. Gordon Fergus-Thompson, Scriabin Complete Piano Works, vol. 5, The Preludes (ASV Digital).

 

At least the Rubinstein CD is only 12 tracks, so I'll just input the correct tracks manually, but the Fergus-Thompson CD has 48 tracks (!!), so I think I'm just not going to bother.

 

[Mister Wednesday]

JoshT,

 

One more reference link for you:

 

http://www.macworld.com/article/155173/2010/10/itunes_sorting_tags.html

 

Regards,

 

Mister Wednesday